Fabrication and characteristics of relaxor ferroelectric PZN-PZT (53/47) thin films by a MOD process

Relaxor ferroelectric (1-x)Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3 - xPb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3 (abbreviated as PZN-PZT (53/47)) (x=0.4-1.0) thin films were prepared by a metallic-organic decomposition (MOD) process on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates. The influence of PZT (53/47) content on the film phase component has been investigated and analyzed. The ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of the PZN-PZT(53/47) thin films have been examined and discussed. The lattice spacing d111 of the thin film was found to have a maximum value when the PZT (53/47) content x is about 0.7∼0.8; which was attributed to the film lattice distortion. Compared with the pure PZT (53/47) thin film, the 0.2PZN-0.8PZT (53/47) thin film was found to have a much lower coercive electric field (Ec) while the spontaneous and remanent polarization was not decreased obviously. Also a more intensive piezoresponse in micro-area of the 0.2PZN-0.8PZT (53/47)) thin film has been observed by a modified AFM.